My Bulgarian teacher from last year has a full schedule right now. I really loved taking lessons with her, and maybe some day I'll have the opportunity to do so again. But at the moment, I have a new teacher. She is wonderful! I don't think I've ever had a more encouraging language teacher.
I was able to set up my lesson in Bulgarian over the phone. This is the hardest way for me to communicate in Bulgarian. I depend so much on facial expression and body language that when it is just the person's voice, I miss a lot of the meaning. I not only spoke in Bulgarian to set up my lesson, but I also understood my teacher!
My first Bulgarian teacher didn't speak English, so I had to learn Bulgarian to communicate with her. Sometimes it made our classes difficult, but we usually figured it out. Two hours of Bulgarian two days a week was highly effective! But there were some grammatical things that I never really understood. I would just say what sounded right to me and then wait for people to correct me. Within my first 2-hour lesson with my new teacher who speaks English, she explained two grammar rules to me in a way that completely make sense to me now!
It feels great to have the accountability of lessons to ensure that I continue learning Bulgarian. What a confidence boost to not only be able to find a new place on my own and set up a meeting in Bulgarian on my own, but also to discover that I haven't forgotten as much as I thought I had since my last lesson (which was in June!)!